Tag Archives: gifts

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Get a big money check from a wealthy great aunt every year for your birthday? Parents buying you a car? Grandparents paying for private school tuition?

How generous they are could be changing very soon.

When somebody gives a big cash gift, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service wants a cut of it. This year, the IRS adjusted the annual limit that escapes taxation, upping it to $15,000 from $14,000.

A more important change that came with the new tax rules: the estate tax limit doubled in 2018 to $11 million per person from $5.49 million.

That boost in giving potential could make people change their behavior, but, as always, family dynamics make things tricky.

One strategy for those who were over the previous estate limit was to give away money on a yearly basis so they did not owe taxes when they died. With the new rules, couples with less than $22 million do not have to worry about parceling out annual gifts and may choose more long-term giving strategies.

Some may also choose to structure large gifts as loans, and then simply forgive the loan over time up to the annual $15,000 amount, said Marc Bloostein, an estate lawyer who is a partner at Ropes Gray in Boston. Bloostein cautioned that the key to this is good record-keeping.

Those giving away money now simply to be generous will likely keep giving at the $15,000 amount annually, said Mark Smith, a certified financial planner at Vision Wealth Planning in Richmond, Virginia.

PARENTAL HELP

Smith typically sees baby boomers helping millennial children with student loan payments and mortgages. He also sees parents making their kids’ retirement contributions, giving them money to put in an IRA or Roth account.

The contributions can add up. Bloostein works with couples who give combined cash gifts to more than 12 family members. “When they give out $30,000 to each one, that’s a huge amount,” he said.

Gift recipients sometimes become dependent on the cash influx, so if the givers change strategy, it could be a rude awakening. But wealthy families may still be interested in reducing their estates because some states have much lower estate tax limits, such as $1 million in Massachusetts.

The older generation also makes a lot of additional payments directly to private schools, colleges and healthcare providers. These skirt the annual limits and do not count as gifts.

But be careful with this approach if there is big disparity in income between grandparents and parents filling out financial aid forms, because the gifts could lower awards. A smarter strategy may be to have grandparents chip in junior year of college, or to pay off loans after graduation, said financial aid consultant Kalman Chany, president of Campus Consultants Inc in New York.

More complications arise when real assets are involved, like a house or a car. Morris Armstrong, a registered investment adviser and enrolled agent tax accountant in Danbury, Connecticut, had an unmarried couple file a gift tax return when they bought a house together – one put up $150,000, but the other was included on the deed.

Sometimes generosity has a darker side, when gifts are used as a means of control, or to assuage guilt, Armstrong noted.

“If kids run into debt, parents sometimes feel a sense of failure, and they are bailing kids out to their own detriment,” Armstrong said.

Financial professionals caution that even if you do not owe tax, it is best to file the proper gift tax forms at the time of the gift. Bloostein has seen a number of situations where gifts had to reconciled during the estate settlement process, and taxes paid.

While the IRS might not catch up with you right away, they will eventually. “It’s not unusual for them to audit an estate tax return,” Bloostein said.

Even when lower estate limits were in force, only 2,700 people owed gift tax in 2016, the last year of data available from the IRS. Most gave away more than $1 million. The other 200,000 gift tax returns owed no tax; the filers were simply reporting the transactions and counting them against their lifetime exclusion amount.

ALMOG, West Bank (Reuters) – The aromatic plants bestowed on the infant Jesus are being cultivated by an Israeli entrepreneur who aims to transform the gifts of the Christmas story into therapeutic balms and incense.

Manger aside, the baby Jesus may have been swaddled in pleasant and pricey fragrances, thanks to the presents that the Bible says were given to him by the Wise Men of the East.

The frankincense (pungent and sweet) and myrrh (sharp and piney) recounted in the Gospel of St Matthew are being grown by Guy Erlich, a businessman who hopes to revive the rare plants’ use for commercial ends.

And what about gold, the third gift brought by the Magi according to the New Testament story?

Some Christians believe this refers to the precious amber resin of the Balsam of Gilead, an aromatic mix resembling citrus and cinnamon that Erlich also cultivates on his farm in the Judean desert.

“I see myself as a modern Magus,” he told Reuters.

“I decided to focus on plants that no one else in the world grows. Since those plants, those medical plants of the Bible were in medical use for so many years, there must be something about them and it is our duty to look for it.”

Dried and crushed resins of all three plants smolder in a nearby censer, filling the air with heavenly smells of fruity freshness.

Guy Erlich, an Israeli entrepreneur, taps a frankincense plant at a plantation in Kibbutz Almog, Judean desert, in the West Bank, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Such smoke was used for religious rites and fumigation in ancient times. The plants have also been known to produce balms, poultices and perfumes. The Balsam of Gilead resin, Erlich says, was used as the oil with which biblical kings were anointed.

Archaeologists doubt the claim that it could be identified as the Magi’s gold, and attribute the origins of this theory to Christian evangelical circles.

But Christianity scholar Yisca Harani explains it may be plausible in at least a literary way, if there was a translation inaccuracy of the word “gold”.

“Maybe it was this very precious Balm of Gilead. Maybe it was another statement from Biblical times saying these are the perfumes that are typical of the prophecies of God, these are the gifts of the land.”

Prof. Shimshon Ben Yehoshua, from the Volcani Agricultural Research Centre and the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Agriculture, says Erlich’s plants are most likely the same as those from ancient times.

“For the frankincense and myrrh which I believe are similar to the ones that were growing in the past in Israel, those are many species but I believe that the species he (Guy Erlich) grew has the desirable qualities,” he told Reuters.

In addition to Christians interested in sampling the scents, Erlich says he has been fielding inquiries from pious Jews who thrill at the prospect of recreating the incenses that were burnt in their Roman-era temple in Jerusalem.

“My plants are sacred to all religions,” he said. “Now they can be a uniting factor. They can be a common ground. They can connect people.”

On Cyber Monday, November 27th, millions of shoppers will be looking online for amazing gifts for friends and family. We could not think of a better time to launch ptlshop.com! On Cyber Monday beginning at 10 am Central Time, we will be broadcasting live on our new website, ptlshop.com, with online and on street specials here at Morningside! There will be unbelievable deals and brand new, never before seen products that you will love!

This Thanksgiving, after spending time celebrating and thanking God for our incredible blessings and our bellies are full, we will be busy filling the PTL shop website with incredible gifts to help you get your Christmas shopping list DONE the moment we launch! There will be apparel and jewelry, Christian books and media, wonderful products for health and beauty, beautiful and useful products for your home and garden, and some brand new gizmos and gadgets you just have to see!

If you have ever experienced an online shopping event here at Morningside, you understand that nobody knows what will happen next and this year promises to be the biggest event EVER! So mark your calendars for Cyber Monday, November 27th at 10 am to go to ptlshop.com and simply push the “Watch live” button to take you on a truly fun and bargain filled day of shopping!

Remember to keep coming back for daily deals and incredible additions to the PTL Shop website and live events!

All of us here at Morningside and The Jim Bakker Show as well as the amazing team behind ptlshop.com wish you and your family a beautiful Thanksgiving filled with love! We hope to see you soon, Monday, November 27th on ptlshop.com!

Imagine being a hard working family in a small agricultural town in Florida. You don’t have much but everyday you give it the best you can. You work hard, you love your family and you support your church. But then a storm like Hurricane Irma hits and is unlike any storm you can remember. The town you knew, the job you went to everyday, your home where your family and friends gathered and the simple vital items such as food and clean water are gone.

This is the fate of thousands of people in Immokalee, Florida, one of the hardest hit communities of Hurricane Irma. With no power, lack of good drinking water and warm meals for families, the people in this community have been devastated. At this very moment, the donations you have provided through our Disaster Relief fund are giving hope and food to hungry people who have lost literally everything.

Yesterday our Morningside team, Mondo DeLaVega, Ricky Bakker, Tammy Sue Bakker, Daina Martin and our camera crew David Zorob, Hamilton Neumann and Adam Armstrong, began handing out the food from our food buckets. The people stood in line for hours, waiting to fill bags, boxes and buckets up with rice, beans, pancake mix, vegetable stew, milk, banana and apple chips and so much more because of YOUR gifts to the relief effort. At times, the line seemed never ending, and the experience of seeing so many who were waiting so patiently for help stirred the deepest emotions in the volunteers who were there.

Another-home-in-florida-damaged-by-Hurricane-Irma

Tammy Sue Bakker attempted to share the emotions that the volunteers were feeling. “If you have a heart, it’s just so hard to talk about it…We’ve got to keep helping people. We have no choice!”

Mondo and Tammy Sue agreed that the entire team has been completely changed by this humbling experience, and the needs they have seen from the disaster in Houston and now Florida are surreal. On a Facebook live message Mondo wanted to deeply impress the great need that is going on all over the world right now.

“We need your help. This is not just a one day effort, this is an everyday kind of effort. People need ministries like this one to give food and supplies. Every little bit helps here but please, be a part of what we are doing right now. This food we give today will only last a little while and then these families have to go out to find more. Pray for this community, the volunteers, donate what you can and please pray for us!”

The crew has been busy gathering stories and filming the community of Immokalee. The relief effort that is ongoing will be shared soon on The Jim Bakker Show.

Danny Viera owns the only Christian bookstore in Fr. Myers. He has been coordinating all of the food for this effort.

Your donations are making a huge impact in this disaster relief effort, but the urgency and the need is quite overwhelming! We need you!

So many have asked about our ministry going to help in Puerto Rico. We are doing all we can to get there. There are many logistics involved in getting this food to where it needs to go, so we must rely on your compassion and financial generosity to help us get these supplies to those that are starving right now in that country!

Again, we thank you for your prayers! Those many people who stood in line yesterday, their arms filled with food for their families when they walked home cannot thank you as they would wish but you are in their grateful prayers tonight!

With so much need around the world right now, it takes all of us to make a difference! Please be a part of what God is asking us to do now!